Monday, 27 January 2014

One in five Canadians will suffer some form of mental illness during
their lifetime. Nevertheless, fighting the stigma of mental illness is
an ongoing battle in which victory is long overdue. Research shows
that:

Mental illness indirectly affects all Canadians at some time through a family member, friend or colleague.

Mental illness affects people of all ages, educational and income levels, and cultures.

Approximately 8% of adults will experience major depression at some time in their lives.

We
can start to help those affected by mental illness by debunking the myths
associated with it. For example, many adolescents (and adults) think
that depression is just part of “growing up” and will disappear on its
own, but we need to appreciate instead that depression may be a
life-long challenge. The Kids Help Phone helps youths who are suffering from depression, anxiety, disordered
eating, and other mental health concerns or who just need someone to listen to them. The telephone number for the helpline in Canada is 1-800-668-6868.

Tomorrow, on
January 28, 2014, Bell Canada is sponsoring its fourth annual “Let's
Talk” Day. The four pillars of the Let's Talk initiative are anti-stigma; care and access; workplace health; and research. To
download a complete copy of the "Let's Talk" toolkit, please visit http://letstalk.bell.ca/en/toolkit.
Join the campaign tomorrow to end the stigma and contribute to mental health
research by talking, tweeting, and texting. The toolkit
provides you with the details.
Mental
health is a global concern. Please check your Internet and local
resources if you live outside Canada.

Monday, 20 January 2014

Over the years, I've had a lot of dentists: ones who piped in music; others who showed videos of an aging James Taylor; and still others who had "new age" ceiling tiles that you could stare at while you were in the chair.

But as you're sitting captive in that chair--your thoughts free-ranging--you recognize that there is nothing quite like a visit to the dentist's office to put things in perspective. Here, then, are some of my more profound observations while sitting in "the chair":

Why is the receptionist so friendly? Is she in denial?

Why are the magazines all two years out of date? Who reads old women's magazines?

Who feeds the fish in the aquarium? Why do they even have an aquarium? What about an office cat or dog to pat to lower your blood pressure?

Why do they always ask you how you are after they put their instruments in your mouth? Do dental hygienists learn a special language to communicate with their patients? And, speaking of dental hygienists, how can a woman who probably weighs less than 110 pounds inflict such a world of pain?

Why do they say "tell me if this hurts" after your gums are already bleeding?

Why do you have to pay someone an exorbitant amount to inflict pain on you if you're not a masochist?

Why does the dentist look like the guy in Marathon Man?

I had one dentist whose Yellow Page ad read: "We cater to cowards." He got you to rate your fear on a scale of one to ten. I think I'm a ten. . .

Monday, 13 January 2014

The Guardian reports that an assistant professor at Stony Brook University in New York claims to have created an algorithm that uses a quantitative approach to predict literary success with an accuracy rate of 84 per cent. The researchers used Project Gutenberg to identify works (poetry was also included); analyzed the literary style of the first one thousand lines of each work; and correlated the results with the number of downloads the title had received. They then identified the stylistic elements in the successful writings. They also applied their analysis to titles outside the Gutenberg database, such as works by Ernest Hemingway, Truman Capote, Philip Roth, and Dan Brown, and were able to predict successful writings at a rate of 70 per cent. (Their system was apparently confused by Hemingway's minimalist style because the algorithm depends on a "high-level syntactic structure".)

In terms of their findings, the less successful books rely on verbs that are "explicitly descriptive of
actions and emotions", whereas more successful books contain straightforward verbs such as "say". The less successful books also contain a higher percentage of verbs, adverbs, and foreign words; topical words that are almost clichés; and extreme and negative words.

The study also found that there is an inverse relation between "success" as defined by the attainment of literary awards and the "readability" of a work.

For the full text of the article from The Guardian, please click here.

Monday, 6 January 2014

The Crime Fiction Lover has published
a list of the first new crime novels of 2014. Included in the list is
Sam Eastland's The Beast in the Red Forest, which is the fifth novel
in the series featuring Inspector Pekkala, a Russian cop. The
British author Ann Cleeves has a new novel entitled Harbour Street,
which features Vera Stanhope. This character has also been
re-created in a UK television series. For those who like the
thrillers of Clive Cussler, his ninth novel in the Oregon File series
(Oregon being a spy ship) entitled Mirage has been released. And last
but not least, the Maigret novel entitled The Hanged Man of
Saint-Pholien by Georges Simenon has been re-published by Penguin. (For my post on the Penguin
re-publication project, please click here.)

For the full text of the Crime Fiction
Lover article, please click here.

And if you missed my Open Investigations blog on new reading for the holiday, please click here.